How Americans Make Sense of Two Novel Pandemics

Using Galileo theory and method of multidimensional scaling (MDS), we compared the psychological distances between concepts related to two pandemic viruses, Zika and COVID-19. Surveys (Zika, N = 410; COVID-19, N = 291) were used to investigate the role of media use and interpersonal communication on the relationship between 10 concepts in multidimensional spaces. We asked these four research questions: Do the two spaces represent the two pandemics similarly? What is the relationship of me and of people to each pandemic? What is the effect of virus-related media use and interpersonal talk on the pandemic space? What are optimal messages for moving me closer to Zika and to COVID-19? Media use influenced the distances for both pandemics: With greater media use, the concepts were closer in the Zika space and further apart in the COVID-19 space. Interpersonal communication was associated with few differences in the spaces. Based on the psychological distances between concepts, optimal messages were identified: For Zika, a message with two concepts, people and women, is predicted to be most effective to move Zika to the concept me, whereas for COVID-19, a message with people is predicted to be most effective to move COVID-19 to me.